Elizabeth Cooke Author

Elizabeth Cooke, also writing as Elizabeth McGregor and Holly Fox, is the author of 15 novels including the Rutherford Park trilogy, the worldwide bestseller The Ice Child, and the non-fiction title The Damnation of John Donellan. She has been translated into 16 languages.

Elizabeth is also an enthusiastic painter, and in 2019 was selected as a wildcard entrant into SKY LANDSCAPE ARTIST OF THE YEAR.

Elizabeth was shortlisted for the Bath Short Story Award 2020 (www.bathshortstoryaward.org) Her story ‘The Kind Mercy of His Madness’ will be published in the 2020 anthology.

She was also shortlisted for the 2021 Bath Short Story Awards with her story ‘L’Chaim.

The Ice Child

This was the break-out book of Elizabeth’s career, creating a publishing bidding war at the turn of the millennium. It sold in 17 countries. When thinking about the topic of her next novel, Elizabeth wanted to write about exploration and wilderness; about beating impossible odds. Read more…

The Damnation of John Donellan

This is the non-fiction account of a miscarriage of justice in 1780, when the heir to a family fortune died in mysterious circumstances. The research for this took Elizabeth all over England, and she was fortunate enough to be given access to previously unseen family archives Read more…

The Girl in the Green Glass Mirror

Catherine and John meet after lives of enormous stress and challenge, and forge a relationship based on their mutual love of art. When John reveals an extraordinary link to the Victorian artist Richard Dadd, they are conflicted over their future. Richard Dadd was a tortured  Read more…

Learning by Heart

The story of a mother and daughter each struggling with their need to come to terms with the past, this is set both in England and Sicily. How much can you trust the person who tells you that they love you, and how do you rewrite the picture that you once thought was set in Read more…

The Gates of Rutherford

The third in the Rutherford series finds the eldest daughter of the family, Charlotte marrying a blinded war hero – but is it a marriage truly made in heaven, or is Charlotte hiding her own secrets? Meanwhile in France Harry, the heir, is suffering in a way that is totally
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Rutherford Park

In 2012, the Berkley imprint of Penguin Group (USA) Inc commissioned three novels set in England prior to and during the First World War, inspired by the worldwide success of Downton Abbey. Elizabeth had already researched this period because her mother’s brother  Read more…

The Wild Dark Flowers

The second in the RUTHERFORD PARK series sees the heir to the Rutherford estate enlist in the Royal Flying Corps; and includes unforgettable sequences of the sinking of the Lusitania. I found myself addicted to Rutherford as much as I was to Downton Abbey’
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You Belong To Me

The second of Elizabeth’s psychological thrillers.  Here the theme of dissociation is once again explored, this time between two women. Joz is a woman damaged by her childhood who needs to take over Faith’s life in order to exorcise her demons. The setting is a small  Read more…

Up and Running

The second of two comedies written by Elizabeth. Meg and Adele are suffering from the same problem: they want to wake up somewhere else, as someone else. Set in the warped world of tabloid TV, we follow their fortunes and misfortunes through the hands of insane TV Read more…

This Way Up

This was the first of two comedies written by Elizabeth. The story centres on four women: Sally, whose actor husband is the infuriatingly unreliable and unfaithful Dermot; Christine, married to a man who is only really married to his scientific life; Virginia, living in poverty with Read more…

Out of Reach

Out of Reach

The fourth of Elizabeth’s unnerving, slow-burn thrillers. Its ten years since Kate’s eight-week-old baby Jamie was stolen, destroying her life and marriage. Now she begins to get letters that have only one sentence: ‘I know where he is’.  ‘A riveting page turner with totally Read more…

A Way Through The Mountains

A novel again inspired by seemingly impossible journeys and fantastic discoveries. Anna Russell’s daughter Rachel has Asperger’s syndrome and is cared for by her mother and her grandmother Grace. When Anna is seriously injured in a car accident, Grace contacts  Read more…

Little White Lies

This is the third of Elizabeth’s books, and was made into a 2-part BBC production which starred Gerard Butler in one of his first television roles. When Beth’s husband is killed in a car accident, she discovers that their life together was based on a series of lies, and another  Read more…

The Wrong House

Elizabeth moved into the genre of supernatural thrillers with this, her sixth novel.  The body of a dead woman in a car, and a girl with her who does not speak. A woman living alone in fear of a stalker. A countryside haunted by destruction. This heady and powerful mix makes Read more…

Second Sight

This book was described as ‘compelling psychological stuff’ by The Daily Express and The Times commented: ‘McGregor is good at conveying menace…chillingly absorbing’. When Lin Gallagher begins hearing voices, is she suffering from a physical or mental illness, or  Read more..

An Intimate Obsession

The first of Elizabeth’s psychological thrillers, this explores a woman’s tortuous relationship with her father who is suffering from Alzheimers, and the invasive, possessive attitude of her next door neighbour who fantasises that she is in love with him. A violent and  Read more…

How to use historical research in your novel

Research is key to a convincing historical novel. And I'd say the most important rule is using original first sources. For The Ice Child, I visited the Scott Polar Research Institute in Cambridge, the Anthony Nolan Trust and Great Ormond Street Hospital. I found...

5 Ways to Create Successful Characters in Your Novel

The golden rule - rounded, three dimensional people. Good characters are not all good. Bad characters are not all bad. 100% angelic heroes or heroines are not believable, and also once you manage to elicit sympathy for your predator/anti-hero/abuser in your novel, you...

PrimaDonna Festival, Suffolk

I'm not one for festivals. I freely admit I'm the last surviving human who hasn't been to Glastonbury, Latitude, the Isle of Wight, Reading or anything else remotely festival shaped. Until three weeks ago. A friend and I decided to go to the very first PrimaDonnaFest...